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As children of the 80s, we’re thrilled to see the return of Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. The film includes dozens of throwbacks to the earlier movies, which helped launch Eddie Murphy into the top tier of Hollywood stardom, but there was one bit that he refused to recycle for the Netflix revival. He would not, under any circumstances, put a banana in a tailpipe, no matter how badly the director begged.

That isn’t a euphuism, by the way. The original film saw Alex Foley sabotage a cop car by slipping a banana into the tailpipe, damaging the exhaust, and scuttling their attempts to pursue him. It became one of the most iconic gags from Beverly Hills Cop, so it makes sense that director Mark Molloy wanted to revive it for the Netflix movie. However, Eddie Murphy was having absolutely none of it.

The Beverly Hills Cop banana in the tailpipe was almost a...potato in the tailpipe??? pic.twitter.com/LEIYM5EMDv

— Netflix (@netflix) July 16, 2024

Murphy explained that every time they were stuck for a joke during a scene, Molley would bring up the banana in the tailpipe bit from the original only for Murphy to slap the idea down. “We can’t do that!” he said. When Molley would insist that people want to see the joke return, Murphy replied with a firm, “No! No, they don’t!”

Eddie Murphy doesn’t say exactly why he didn’t want to include that specific gag in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, but the cast did share one last little anecdote about the scene in the clip shared by Netflix on social media. Apparently, it was originally going to be a potato in the tailpipe, something that would be much more effective at damaging a car’s exhaust. On the day of filming, Murphy changed it to a banana because, in his words, “I do know a banana is funnier than a potato.”

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